Keeping Distance

Every September, nearly 2 million migrating wildebeest arrive at the verdant plains of the Masai Mara game reserve in southwest Kenya. The great herds will stay for two to three months, eating the grass flat and reducing much of it dust, before heading back south towards the Serengeti plains. Wildebeest can sense the intentions of predators - lions, hyenas and cheetahs -simply by watching their body language. They know if a big cat is hungry and ready to hunt or if he as a full belly and just wants to lie there and sleep. As long as the predator is in view, they feel relatively safe and will often approach quite close in morbid curiosity. The cheetah lay in the short grass, eyes half closed and tail twitching, as it gazed lazily at its restless, mesmerized audience of wildebeest bulls.